Partition and the Rise of Hindutva Movement in Contemporary India

Abstract

espanolHindutva persigue, mediante la agitacion entre hindues, controlar los resortes del poder e imponer la uniformidad cultural. En parte esta preponderancia de Hindutva se debe al fracaso del “centro-izquierda” para consolidarse como fuerza politica en las decadas de 1970 y 1980. A lo largo de este tiempo los gobiernos de turno se proclamaban laicos, pero se inhibian de acometer politicas en ese sentido para no perder apoyo entre los musulmanes, lo que ha permitido que el extremismo hindu capitalizara la oposicion. En estos momentos el panorama ha cambiado de forma drastica. ?Puede una sociedad multirreligiosa y multicultural desarrollarse en un estado en descomposicion? ?El subcontinente se esta asimilando al modelo europeo de la nacion-estado etnica, apoyada en una religion y una cultura exclusivas? En otras palabras ?es esto una consecuencia de la Particion? EnglishHindutva movement is now actively seeking to capture instruments of state power and trying to impose its cultural hegemony by mobilizing Hindus. In post-Independent India, the Hindutva movement has reached such proportions because the much desired ‘left-of-centre’ consolidation failed to emerge in the 1970s and 1980s. Over these decades, the governments of the day claimed that India was a secular country but in actual practice, because of the fear of losing Muslim votes, they constantly postponed the implementation of a secular agenda thereby opening the space for the Hindutva forces to rush in. Now the political terrain has changed drastically. Is the belief that a multi-religious and culturally diverse society can wield itself into a nation and democratic polity coming apart? Is the sub-continent returning to the European model of building ethnic nation-states underpinned by the cultural codes of a mono-culture or single religion? In a line, could this be attributed to the ‘long shadow’ of the Partition of India?